We''re looking at replacing a current Linux server with a T1000 + a fiber channel enclosure to take advantage of ZFS. Unfortunately, the T1000 only has a single drive bay (!) which makes it impossible to follow our normal practice of mirroring the root file system; naturally the idea of using that big ZFS pool is appealing. Is anyone actually booting ZFS in production and, if so, would you recommend this approach? Thanks, Chris This message posted from opensolaris.org
>Unfortunately, the T1000 only has a > single drive bay (!) which makes it impossible to > follow our normal practice of mirroring the root fileYou can replace the existing 3.5" disk with two 2.5" disks (quite cheap) //Mika This message posted from opensolaris.org
Chris Adams wrote:>Is anyone actually booting ZFS in production and, if so, would you recommend this approach? > >ZFS-boot has not been released in any official way yet. Only parts of it are available in OpenSolaris. So no, no one should be booting ZFS in production yet. Lori
On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 07:52:36AM -0600, Lori.Alt at Sun.COM wrote:> Chris Adams wrote: > > >Is anyone actually booting ZFS in production and, if so, would you > >recommend this approach? > > > > > ZFS-boot has not been released in any official way > yet. Only parts of it are available in OpenSolaris. > So no, no one should be booting ZFS in production yet.How about test? If I wanted to test this, what would I need to get? Or, if it''s not completely available yet, what would I need to wait for? -brian
You can manually set up a ZFS root environment but it requires a UFS partition to boot off of. See: http://blogs.sun.com/tabriz/entry/are_you_ready_to_rumble Brian Hechinger wrote:> On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 07:52:36AM -0600, Lori.Alt at Sun.COM wrote: > >> Chris Adams wrote: >> >> >>> Is anyone actually booting ZFS in production and, if so, would you >>> recommend this approach? >>> >>> >>> >> ZFS-boot has not been released in any official way >> yet. Only parts of it are available in OpenSolaris. >> So no, no one should be booting ZFS in production yet. >> > > How about test? If I wanted to test this, what would I need to get? > Or, if it''s not completely available yet, what would I need to wait > for? > > -brian > _______________________________________________ > zfs-discuss mailing list > zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss >
On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 01:23:37PM -0500, Christopher Scott wrote:> You can manually set up a ZFS root environment but it requires a UFS > partition to boot off of. > See: http://blogs.sun.com/tabriz/entry/are_you_ready_to_rumbleThat''s not was I was refering to. I''m interested in testing the install/boot stuff that''s being worked on. The "No-UFS Needed" kind. ;) -brian
Brian Hechinger wrote:>On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 01:23:37PM -0500, Christopher Scott wrote: > > >>You can manually set up a ZFS root environment but it requires a UFS >>partition to boot off of. >>See: http://blogs.sun.com/tabriz/entry/are_you_ready_to_rumble >> >> > >That''s not was I was refering to. I''m interested in testing the install/boot >stuff that''s being worked on. The "No-UFS Needed" kind. ;) > > >We do have a new version of the procedure documented in Tabriz''s blog that no longer requires the UFS partition. I will look into getting that made available and will announce its availability on this alias. It''s still a largely manual procedure involving bfu. As for the regular install/boot support of zfs, there are some issues preventing the release of this. First, the Solaris install code has not yet been open-sourced, so we can''t provide the install code changes for zfs boot. So, why not provide install executables and let you build your own ISO or netinstall images? Because the zfs boot support in the kernel has not yet been integrated into Solaris, so the source available to the Open Solaris community doesn''t have the code changes yet. So maybe provide the diffs and let the community build it themselves? Well, to do a regular install, you need packages, not BFU archives. And the Open Solaris community can''t build the necessary packages yet because of this bug: http://bugs.opensolaris.org/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6414822 So either the zfs boot support has to be putback into Solaris, or the above bug needs to be fixed before we can make a zfs-capable install solution available to the Open Solaris community. Lori Alt
On 27/10/06, Christopher Scott <chris.scott at acu.edu> wrote:> You can manually set up a ZFS root environment but it requires a UFS > partition to boot off of. > See: http://blogs.sun.com/tabriz/entry/are_you_ready_to_rumbleThere''s a slightly improved procedure at http://solaristhings.blogspot.com/2006/06/zfs-root-on-solaris-part-2.html It uses a /grub partition rather than a full root FS to boot from - you still need a UFS / for the initial install, but after the first boot into ZFS you can reformat that and use it for swap or whatever. Also a nice section on how to clone your root fs and boot off that (which is great for testing new releases now we have ''zfs promote''). -- Rasputin :: Jack of All Trades - Master of Nuns http://number9.hellooperator.net/
On 10/28/06, Dick Davies <rasputnik at gmail.com> wrote:> http://solaristhings.blogspot.com/2006/06/zfs-root-on-solaris-part-2.html > > It uses a /grub partition rather than a full root FS to boot from - you > still need a UFS / for the initial install, but after the first boot into ZFS > you can reformat that and use it for swap or whatever.The original question was about using ZFS root on a T1000. /grub looks suspiciously incompatible with the T1000 because it isn''t x86. I''ve heard rumors of brining grub to sparc, but... Mike -- Mike Gerdts http://mgerdts.blogspot.com/
On Sat, Oct 28, 2006 at 08:19:24AM -0500, Mike Gerdts wrote:> On 10/28/06, Dick Davies <rasputnik at gmail.com> wrote: > >http://solaristhings.blogspot.com/2006/06/zfs-root-on-solaris-part-2.html > > > >It uses a /grub partition rather than a full root FS to boot from - you > >still need a UFS / for the initial install, but after the first boot into > >ZFS > >you can reformat that and use it for swap or whatever. > > The original question was about using ZFS root on a T1000. /grub > looks suspiciously incompatible with the T1000 because it isn''t x86. > I''ve heard rumors of brining grub to sparc, but...My particular question went both ways though; however, I would like to see this on SPARC more than I would x86 (All my boxes at home are SPARC, the only place I run x86 is on my POS Dell on my desk at work). So that also applies to me. ;) Seriously though, I''ve already attempted (and failed, on b38) to do the convert to ZFS root on the PC at work, and I''m not real interested in that process, I''d like to help start testing once we can install straight to ZFS without any hoop jumping. I realize this isn''t going to be anytime soon; however, I''m just trying to keep up to date so when it is ready to test (aka: bootable ISO can be downloaded) I''ve got a ton of machines to test it on. I can''t wait. ;) -brian
Brian Hechinger wrote:> On Sat, Oct 28, 2006 at 08:19:24AM -0500, Mike Gerdts wrote: > >>On 10/28/06, Dick Davies <rasputnik at gmail.com> wrote: >> >>>http://solaristhings.blogspot.com/2006/06/zfs-root-on-solaris-part-2.html >>> >>>It uses a /grub partition rather than a full root FS to boot from - you >>>still need a UFS / for the initial install, but after the first boot into >>>ZFS >>>you can reformat that and use it for swap or whatever. >> >>The original question was about using ZFS root on a T1000. /grub >>looks suspiciously incompatible with the T1000 because it isn''t x86. >>I''ve heard rumors of brining grub to sparc, but... > > > My particular question went both ways though; however, I would like to see > this on SPARC more than I would x86 (All my boxes at home are SPARC, the only > place I run x86 is on my POS Dell on my desk at work). So that also applies > to me. ;) > > Seriously though, I''ve already attempted (and failed, on b38) to do the convert > to ZFS root on the PC at work, and I''m not real interested in that process, I''d > like to help start testing once we can install straight to ZFS without any hoop > jumping. I realize this isn''t going to be anytime soon; however, I''m just trying > to keep up to date so when it is ready to test (aka: bootable ISO can be downloaded) > I''ve got a ton of machines to test it on. >Are you looking for a solution that (A) works, or (B) works and would be supported by Sun?> I can''t wait. ;)You''re not alone. :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff VICTOR Sun Microsystems jeff.victor @ sun.com OS Ambassador Sr. Technical Specialist Solaris 10 Zones FAQ: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zones/faq --------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 28/10/06, Mike Gerdts <mgerdts at gmail.com> wrote:> On 10/28/06, Dick Davies <rasputnik at gmail.com> wrote: > > http://solaristhings.blogspot.com/2006/06/zfs-root-on-solaris-part-2.html> The original question was about using ZFS root on a T1000. /grub > looks suspiciously incompatible with the T1000 because it isn''t x86. > I''ve heard rumors of brining grub to sparc, but...Whoops, walked in halfway :) Tabriz reference is also x86 specific, I believe. Thanks for the catch. -- Rasputin :: Jack of All Trades - Master of Nuns http://number9.hellooperator.net/
Chris Adams wrote:> We''re looking at replacing a current Linux server with a T1000 + a fiber channel enclosure > to take advantage of ZFS. Unfortunately, the T1000 only has a single drive bay (!) which > makes it impossible to follow our normal practice of mirroring the root file system; > naturally the idea of using that big ZFS pool is appealing.Note: the original T1000 had the single disk limit. This was unfortunate, and a sales inhibitor. Today, you have the option of single (SATA) or dual (SAS) boot disks, with hardware RAID. See: http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/t1000/specs.xml> Is anyone actually booting ZFS in production and, if so, would you recommend this approach?At this time, I would not recommend it for SPARC systems. -- richard
Richard Elling - PAE wrote:> >> Is anyone actually booting ZFS in production and, if so, would you >> recommend this approach? > > At this time, I would not recommend it for SPARC systems.I''ll note that I''ve been using S10U2 on a similar system (two drives) with slices. I currently have S10U2 with space for doing a live upgrade when I decide to absorb an update. Then I have other slices on the drives I''ve turned into a mirrored zfs pool. I use the UFS with Solaris Volume Manager Mirroring for the global zone (yes, inferior to ZFS technically, but has been in production on systems for over a decade, so well understood if I get into trouble), but put all of the production workload on zones (on zfs filesystems) and datasets delegated to the zones from there. I''ve not had any failures yet, but I''ve had all of the zfs functionality (snapshots/compression mainly) I need along with something reliable. - Matt -- Matt Ingenthron - Web Infrastructure Solutions Architect Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Client Solutions, Systems Practice http://blogs.sun.com/mingenthron/ email: matt.ingenthron at sun.com Phone: 310-242-6439
Richard Elling - PAE
2006-Oct-29 20:29 UTC
CLARIFICATION: Re: [zfs-discuss] Current status of a ZFS root
CLARIFICATION below. Richard Elling - PAE wrote:> Chris Adams wrote: >> We''re looking at replacing a current Linux server with a T1000 + a >> fiber channel enclosure to take advantage of ZFS. Unfortunately, the >> T1000 only has a single drive bay (!) which makes it impossible to >> follow our normal practice of mirroring the root file system; >> naturally the idea of using that big ZFS pool is appealing. > > Note: the original T1000 had the single disk limit. This was > unfortunate, and a > sales inhibitor. Today, you have the option of single (SATA) or dual > (SAS) boot > disks, with hardware RAID. See: > http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/t1000/specs.xml > >> Is anyone actually booting ZFS in production and, if so, would you >> recommend this approach? > > At this time, I would not recommend it for SPARC systems. > -- richardShould read: At this time, I would not recommend using ZFS for root on SPARC systems. -- richard
On Sun, Oct 29, 2006 at 12:01:45PM -0800, Richard Elling - PAE wrote:> Chris Adams wrote: > >We''re looking at replacing a current Linux server with a T1000 + a fiber > >channel enclosure to take advantage of ZFS. Unfortunately, the T1000 only > >has a single drive bay (!) which makes it impossible to follow our normal > >practice of mirroring the root file system; naturally the idea of using > >that big ZFS pool is appealing. > > Note: the original T1000 had the single disk limit. This was unfortunate, > and a > sales inhibitor. Today, you have the option of single (SATA) or dual (SAS) > boot > disks, with hardware RAID. See: > http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/t1000/specs.xmlGood to know that this limit has been removed. Can the original T1000s be backfitted, or do I just need to be very careful what I''m ordering now? Ceri -- That must be wonderful! I don''t understand it at all. -- Moliere -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 187 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/zfs-discuss/attachments/20061030/e951938b/attachment.bin>
[Richard removes his Sun hat...] Ceri Davies wrote:> On Sun, Oct 29, 2006 at 12:01:45PM -0800, Richard Elling - PAE wrote: >> Chris Adams wrote: >>> We''re looking at replacing a current Linux server with a T1000 + a fiber >>> channel enclosure to take advantage of ZFS. Unfortunately, the T1000 only >>> has a single drive bay (!) which makes it impossible to follow our normal >>> practice of mirroring the root file system; naturally the idea of using >>> that big ZFS pool is appealing. >> Note: the original T1000 had the single disk limit. This was unfortunate, >> and a >> sales inhibitor. Today, you have the option of single (SATA) or dual (SAS) >> boot >> disks, with hardware RAID. See: >> http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/t1000/specs.xml > > Good to know that this limit has been removed. Can the original > T1000s be backfitted, or do I just need to be very careful what > I''m ordering now?Yes, there is a part, XRA-SS2CG-73G10KZ, which has two 2.5" SAS disks with bracket and cable. The reason I took my Sun hat off is because the drive controller on the T1000 motherboard is an LSI 1064-based SAS/SATA controller with 2 ports. If you can figure out how to mount a second drive, then that will be the hardest part of adding a drive to a single-SATA disk T1000. Obviously, such a modification would not be "supported" by Sun, unless you use the XRA-SS2CG-73G10KZ. -- richard